Pill cases are known in the art and typically contain a plurality of pills which can be accessed by the user as needed. Pill cases known in the art are desirably compact so that they can be carried by the user in a purse or in a shirt pocket or other convenient location.
Some users are required to take medication for extended periods of time. Examples of such medications include medicines for treating chronic illnesses such as elevated blood pressure, cardiac deficiencies, arthritis, illnesses in which pain is part of an on-going treatment plan, and the like. In addition, life-style related medications such as birth control pills, hormone replacement pills and the like also require long term, periodic use.
Pill storage/dispensing devices, especially for long term use medications, typically suffer from a number of disadvantages. One such device is a container typically used by pharmacies to fill prescriptions for medications. These containers are disadvantageous because the pills can be adversely affected (e.g. chipped or broken) by unwanted contact with other pills and can easily fall out of the container when attempting to dispense a typical dose of one or two pills. In addition, such containers do not enable the user to readily visualize how many pills remain in the container. Some pill dispensers are typically limited to a fixed number of pills before they must be replaced and therefore can only be used for relatively short term prescription periods (e.g. no more than 30 days).
Other pill storage/dispensing cases are shown and described in U.S. Design Pat. Nos. Des. 339,742; Des. 358,762; Des. 411,445; Des. 414,106; and Des. 423,111; as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,414,119; 5,348,158; 5,351,818; 5,368,187; 5,372,258; 6,036,018; 6,173,838; and 6,219,997 each of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Some pill dispensing/storage cases now employ blister cards or blister packs which house a preselected number of pills and which protect each pill so that they cannot be broken by contact with other pills. The blister cards store pills in spaced apart pill receiving cavities which are then sealed using a protective cover such as coated paper, foil, plastic or the like. The pills may be removed from the cavities by piercing the cover or by applying pressure to one side of the covered pill until the pill bursts through the protective cover. More detailed descriptions of blister cards or packs are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,368,187; 6,036,018; 6,219,997; and 6,338,408, each of which is incorporated herein by reference. Despite these efforts there remains the need for a pill storage/dispensing device that a) is compact, b) easily opened to gain access to the pills, c) capable of accommodating pills for extensive prescription periods, d) capable of accommodating sleeves for receiving different pills and/or dosage regimens and e) wherein the sleeves can accommodate multiple blister cards or packs, which are either permanently or removably secured to the pill case.
It would therefore be a significant advantage in the art to provide users an opportunity to house medications in a pill storing/dispensing device which can readily house individual pills in separate compartments and which facilitates dispensing of the desired dose of pills. It would also be an advantage in the art if the pill containing device can house a varying quantity of pills depending on the particular requirements of the medication and the dosage regimen required by the user which may be in the form of blister cards which have varying numbers of pills such as may be used for dispensing oral contraceptive medications.
It would be a further advantage in the art to provide a pill storage/dispensing device having multiple sleeves, where each sleeve receives and dispenses a number of pills corresponding to a particular dosage regimen. It would be a further advantage in the art if the device can accommodate relative long term prescriptions (e.g. more than 30 days) and it would be a still further advantage in the art if the pill case can be in a compact form, easy to carry and store in a purse, shirt pocket or the like.